MEMO POINTS:An e-mail sent to US lawmakers outlined the benefits of the sale and asked why China was so opposed to Taiwan getting new F-16s if they were irrelevant

Five US Air Force F-16 “Fighting Falcon” jets fly in formation over the US en route to an exercise in this undated file photograph.

Photo: Reuters, USAF/Staff Sergeant Greg Davis

Lockheed Martin Corp is helping arm US lawmakers for a renewed push to sell its new F-16 fighter jets to Taiwan, not just US President Barack Obama’s administration’s planned US$5.3 billion upgrade of old ones.

A Lockheed Martin official last week e-mailed an unsigned memo to lawmakers on Capitol Hill titled “Taiwan — The Benefit of New F-16C/Ds,” two congressional staff members said.

Lockheed’s memo to lawmakers was dated Sept. 22, a day after the administration told Congress that it was offering Taiwan a US$5.3 billion retrofit of 145 F-16A/B models sold in the 1990s. Administration officials said a decision had not yet been made on Taiwan’s five-year-old request for 66 new F-16C/D models valued at US$8.3 billion.

The Lockheed memo included “rebuttal points” to what Lockheed called the expected conclusion of a Pentagon report that the administration could use to try to defuse criticism of its decision not to release new F-16s to Taiwan.

Lockheed Martin neither confirmed nor denied having circulated the memo, a copy of which was obtained by reporters. It said a sale of F-16s would benefit not only the company, but generate more than 16,000 jobs in the US over five to six years, citing a study it had commissioned.

“Any questions regarding the sale of new F-16s to Taiwan should be referred to the governments of Taiwan and the US,” Laura Siebert, a Lockheed spokeswoman, added in an e-mail.

The company, the Pentagon’s largest supplier by sales, typically depicts itself as a bystander in the foreign arms-sale process, patiently awaiting government decisions.

The one-page memo highlighted what some experts consider flaws in Obama administration decision-making on the F-16s. The memo raised questions that could put policymakers on the spot at a scheduled US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Taiwan on Tuesday.

The issue is politically sensitive for Obama. The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act requires Washington to provide for Taiwan’s defense without regard to Beijing’s sensitivities on the matter.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney accused Obama last week of having “caved” to China by denying Taiwan F-16C/Ds, calling this “yet another example of his weak leadership in foreign policy.”

In the US Congress, 47 of the 100 senators and 181 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives have written to Obama since May to urge him to sell to Taiwan at least 66 late-model F-16C/D planes.

Advocates of new F-16 sales say they should be in addition to the upgrade of the old models.

The document distributed on Capitol Hill by Lockheed was based on the “expected conclusion” of the US Department of Defense report on the state of Taiwan’s air power, and sought to refute it.

The classified Pentagon report itself was sent to Congress on Sept. 22, the same day as the Lockheed memo, 20 months after a congressional mandate for its delivery, a third congressional official said

“Taiwan cannot protect their F-16 aircraft or the runways from which they operate from the ballistic missile threat,” the memo summarized the Pentagon report as finding, referring to how China might attack in any cross-strait conflict.

“So, new F-16C/Ds would not contribute to their deterrent capability and are not relevant,” the memo summarized the report as saying.

However, Taiwan has some of the best-protected, hardened aircraft shelters in the region, the memo said.